Abstract

This chapter utilises a wealth of Irish archival records to present an overview of Irish female criminality during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that female criminality was as significant as male criminality at the time. It marks the first in a series of studies of Irish women, first in Ireland and subsequently as migrants to Spain, leading to a monograph in preparation, 'Women of the Wild Geese: Irish Women Migrants in Early Modern Spain'. The work is heavily archival based and has a distinctive urban component. This is an area of women’s history with no previous scholarly activity or publications. The article is a revised and extended version of an invited paper given in the Criminal Justice strand at the European Social Science History Conference held in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands in 1996.